Children's Museum board members say Brown suspended; she disagrees

Thursday

Apr 3, 2014 at 5:00 AM

A small group of members of the Children's Museum Board of Directors say they have suspended Executive Director Marlene Brown. Brown said she is not suspended and accused the leader of the group, Christopher Gordon, of “committing fraud, out and out.”

Is Marlene Brown in or out?

A small group of members of the Children’s Museum Board of Directors say they have suspended Executive Director Marlene Brown.

Brown said she is not suspended and accused the leader of the group, Christopher Gordon, of “committing fraud, out and out.”

“Chris is trying to get the building,” she said. “He is trying to get us out. He is trying to get the keys, and if he does, he will ransack it.”

Gordon said he only is doing what a responsible board member should do.

“We have the fiduciary responsibility as board members to know the finances of the museum,” said Gordon, who said he is the board chairman. “We could be liable for anything in that building. Safety, finances.”

The fracas comes in the wake of revelations that Brown believed that she had been given a 60 percent share of the ownership of the museum’s building. The structure at 311 Main Street is valued at about $500,000.

If it had occurred, the transaction would have been illegal since such actions require the approval of the state Attorney General’s office and a court order, neither of which were obtained.

As it turned out, there is no deed to show that the transfer took place but it raised questions about the museum’s management.

Gordon has made allegations about possible financial improprieties.

Brown has adamantly denied the accusations.

The rundown

On Sunday, Gordon called a meeting of the board.

He said three of the board’s nine members showed up: Gordon, his brother David Gordon and Paul Miscione.

Miscione, a New Hartford Town Board member, has been a Children’s Museum board member for about three weeks. He said, however, that he is concerned that the museum’s finances are not being properly managed.

Under the museum’s bylaws, a board quorum is one third of the total number. The trio voted to suspend Brown.

Chris Gordon said though the bylaws require a majority of the full board to approve the hiring or firing of the executive director, only a majority of the quorum is needed for a suspension. His lawyer, Mark Wolber, said the same.

Brown and her son Bradley Brown, who is a board member, say Gordon’s meeting was illegal and that he never was chairman and has been formally removed from the board. Gordon said he has documents that prove he is chairman, and that he wasn’t properly informed of the meeting in March in which he was voted off.

Michael West, an attorney for the New York Council on Nonprofits, said it sounds as though both meetings might not have been proper. Gordon wasn’t properly informed of the one in which he was removed, but may not have given board members sufficient notice of the meeting in which Brown was suspended.

“The whole thing is very murky,” West said. “It seems as if there are two factions and each is trying to legally exclude the other.”

Gordon said he plans to be at the museum this morning to serve Brown with papers about her suspension. Brown said she would not be there, and rescheduled a field trip planned for the day so the children wouldn’t have to witness any awkward or unpleasant interactions.

Investigations?

Oneida County District Attorney Scott McNamara and the Utica police say they are aware of the situation at the museum.

McNamara said Gordon had brought a complaint to his office, but at this point he has not called for an investigation because there isn’t evidence so far that there is any criminal aspect to the situation.

“We referred him to the UPD,” McNamara said of Gordon.

Utica Police spokesman Lt. Steve Hauck said an allegation has been filed and “right now it is in its very infant stages of an investigation.”

The Attorney General’s Office declined to say whether it is investigating the matter.